Summer school program under way

The Inland Lakes School Board of Education recently approved hiring three teachers and two aides for the elementary summer school program. Inland Lakes Superintendent Fred Osborn said this will allow for more one-one-one interaction with students than having only four teachers would and for the same price. “So, we are excited about that change,” said Osborn. Teachers Susan Collins, Bo Fletcher and Sharon Hirn and para-professionals Sherry Schoolcraft and Cyndi Whitman were hired for the summer school program, which runs July 14-August 14. The teachers have all taught summer school classes at the elementary in the past. To be a part of the summer school program, the teachers each had to analyze end-of-the-year data to determine the objectives for their classes. They created lesson plans and a review of the curriculum for all subject areas for the grades to which they were assigned. The para-professionals work alongside the teachers to accomplish their goals. The summer school format in the secondary building also was changed. In the past, the school has hired someone to be in the computer lab while students would drop in to get support for their credit recovery classes. “This year, we assigned kids to a caseload and had teachers responsible to contact the kids, and the lab isn’t necessarily open unless it’s coordinated with the teacher,” said Osborn. “So they might have several kids who need to get into the lab, so they would coordinate that time and meet them here. Otherwise, they are just supporting them virtually, calling them and making sure they are doing what they need to be.” Osborn said up to this point, the school has had some really good success with the changes made to the program. There are two teachers responsible for the program in the secondary building, Kelly LaPeer and Sarah Furman. The classes are mostly online, between June 16 and July 11. There have been a number of students who took the courses offered and were able to successfully complete the credit recoveries. Also at the meeting June 30, Osborn brought two things to the board that were concerns of the school’s union. He said they were indicative of a new culture. One of those was that the school day was a little short on time, so the school was going to extend the day by five minutes, only at the secondary building. “Right now we had a staggered release to get kids on the bus,” said Osborn. “It’s a staggered thing so we don’t have elementary kids and secondary kids competing to get on the bus.” Osborn said extending the day in the secondary building by those five minutes would have created a bit of a problem at the end of the day. The teachers came to Osborn and suggested shortening the lunch period by five minutes and leaving the end of the day the way it was. “Again, this is a concession they made for the kids and the district, which is pretty amazing,” said Osborn. The second issue involving the union was the negotiations of contracts. Last year, the district negotiated contracts with all of its teachers, with just the wages open to be negotiated this school year. The school’s union representative approached Osborn and said based on the budget and challenges the district is facing, the union would forego negotiating wages at this time. This would open the whole contract up, wages and all, to be negotiated next year. Osborn said the union wanted to do what was best for the kids.